30 years after Hugo tore it down, SC coast builds back in the danger zone
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Hugo: 30 years later
Three decades have passed since the killer storm, Hurricane Hugo, cut a path of destruction through
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When Hurricane Hugo hit
At the time, no one said much about Hugo's impact on the narrow spit because not much was there.
Then in the late 1990s, construction workers arrived on the property, building the first grand home in a row of new oceanfront houses. Today, about three-dozen houses perch precariously on the sand spit, between the
The story of south Litchfield is a familiar one in
In places where small beach cottages once stood, magnificent new houses have been erected. Tidal creeks just off the oceanfront are booming with development. And in some vulnerable spots, high-rise condominiums tower above the ocean.
All this is occurring as sea level rises and more powerful storms lash the coast, and as S.C. legislators dismantle regulations to control coastal development.
The coastal buildup is a big issue for an array of reasons. It's potentially dangerous because more people are living in the path of storms and rising seas, but building too close to the coast also threatens to pull money from the pockets of taxpayers. When people lose homes, condos and hotels along the coast, the federal government often winds up bailing out wealthy property owners through insurance, beach renourishment funding and emergency services.
People familiar with the post-Hugo development say the state didn't learn many lessons about building near the sea. While
"For those of us who know you can't beat Mother Nature, there is great concern" about the increase in coastal development, said
If a storm like Hugo hit today, smacking the coast directly and plowing through the state to
According to a range of statistics, it's clear that Hugo did little to deter people from moving near the ocean or directly on the beachfront. Among the growth trends:
-- More people. The population of
-- More houses. Developers built more than 100,000 housing units, which includes houses and condominiums, in census tracts touching the ocean from 1990 to 2017, according to census data analyzed by the National Historical GIS System. The number of housing units rose from 177,361 in 1990 to 292,910 in 2017, an increase of 65 percent.
-- Lost open space. Nearly 64,000 acres of open land have been developed since the mid 1990s. Shopping centers, beach homes, hotels and other types of development have replaced woodlands and wetlands, according to statistics from the
-- High risk building. More than 1,200 homes have been built in areas of
-- More people with flood insurance. Statewide, the number of federally backed flood insurance policies has increased more than 300 percent since 1989 and doubled since 1999, according to the statistics from the
-- More high rise condos. In some places, huge condo towers and big homes were built in areas, that at one time, had been considered by state law to be unsafe to develop. State regulators have freed hundreds of oceanfront lots of tough development restrictions. In
Satellite images, provided by the
Beach development since Hugo also likely occurred because of the state's commitment to renourishing beaches, which gave people a sense of security that their homes and hotels were protected by extra layers of beach sand, said former state Rep.
Since Hurricane Hugo, 41 beach renourishment projects have been conducted in
Now, as development and redevelopment have continued on the beaches, tidal rivers and marshes, the threat -- and the damage -- continue to mount in
Since 2015, a historic rainfall and four hurricanes have smacked
They're among the people who built houses at the southern end of
With sweeping views of both the ocean and the salt marsh, the property virtually sold itself. It was quiet and secluded, behind a guard gate that restricts public access to the
Those who bought lots there felt reassured that they had made a good investment. After all, a local developer at one time had considered building a hotel there, so the spit appeared stable enough for beach houses, Pulliam said.
"It was advertised and backed up as one of the most stable pieces of property around," said Pulliam, a
The houses, valued at more than
Yarborough, the legendary
"I had partners in the construction of it, and it was so beautiful that, after we finished it, I bought the partners out," Yarborough said.
Things are more complicated now. The beach is eroding enough to make Pulliam and Yarborough nervous.
Photographs taken by
Hurricane Dorian also wiped out the dunes and damaged a seawall neighbors built to protect their investments from the ocean, Pulliam said. Yarborough said property owners at Litchfield need help, but they aren't alone in their battles with beach erosion.
"It's devastating the way the dunes are washing away and leaving our houses standing there," Yarborough said. "I don't know what can be done about it. It didn't seem to be an issue back then, but it is now. All around the coast it's a major problem."
In a recent interview, Pulliam said he plans to take the wall down because it isn't allowed under state law. Yarborough said he's already removed his seawall. Both said they'll seek state permission to push up sand on the beach in an effort to protect their homes.
Even so, Yarborough said it's hard to understand why he can't have a seawall.
"That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, that you can't put up a wall to protect your property," Yarborough said. "Somebody needs to have some reason somewhere. It's a shame that everybody is going to lose all their property down there because you can't put a wall up."
The state prohibits new seawalls because they make beach erosion worse when pounded by the waves, leaving less seashore to walk on.
Retired
The midnight storm practically leveled some communities, knocking beach houses into the street and smashing others to splinters. Entire communities, including
"The beaches are dynamic," said Dean, who served on a committee in 1987 that recommended a tough coastal development law. "There will be storm events that overwhelm the system."
But he said it's not surprising that people were comfortable enough to build near the ocean after Hurricane Hugo.
"We had a quiet period after Hugo when we didn't get many storms," Young said. "The last 3 to 4 years, that's not so true."
Since Hugo, hurricanes have caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damage across the
Hurricane Matthew, which landed at
At least seven hurricanes that have hit or come near
Repeat offenders
Up to 359,000 homes in
From 1978 to 2017, the owners of nearly 400 buildings in
That's more than seven other coastal states and territories, including
Efforts are under way in
"We have way too many situations where losses are sustained over and over and over again," Conrad said. "And the losses associated with flooding are skyrocketing."
It's a big deal to taxpayers because the federal flood insurance program often doesn't bring in enough in premiums from oceanfront land owners and others to pay off all the claims after major hurricanes. That means taxpayers must bail out the system, spending billions of dollars to pay claims.
Overall,
"If you are experiencing hurricanes or violent storms in general more frequently, and that is a trend that is likely to continue, then you really have to question whether putting things back in place -- where they were and the way they were -- is an intelligent decision," he said.
One positive since Hugo is that tougher building codes have been adopted so that new buildings are better able to withstand hurricane damage, said
Many homes must now be elevated to avoid flooding and new homes in coastal areas must be better able to withstand hurricane-force winds.. Riley said
"The buildings are built more sturdily now than they would have been before the storm," Riley said.
Still,
It is forecast to rise another 1 to 4 feet by the end of the century, he said. Some forecasts have placed the rise higher. That's an issue because hurricanes can cause worse flooding -- and flooding farther inland -- when the sea level is higher, he said. Salt marsh areas -- increasingly popular as new home sites -- are particularly threatened, he said.
"The whole coast is going to be equally vulnerable," Marcy said. "I think the big issue is going to be in the marshes. Can the marshes keep up with sea level rise?"
Politics over science
For much of the past 30 years, legislators have watered down what once was considered a model oceanfront development law. And coastal regulators, under pressure from politicians who had heard from wealthy property owners, have allowed development because they say the law isn't strong enough.
Passed by the Legislature in 1988, the Beachfront Management Act was supposed to move new development back from the beach gradually over 40 years. But it didn't take long after Hurricane Hugo for legislators to begin amending the law.
Initially, they agreed in 1990 to drop restrictions that forbade any development or rebuilding within 20 feet of the beach. After Hugo destroyed hundreds of beach houses and property owners asked for help rebuilding, this so-called "dead zone" was eliminated from the state Beachfront Management Law, allowing many homes to be built back.
Under the amended law, people also were allowed to build farther out on the beach if they received special permits from the state
Then, in response to a court case in 2002, the Legislature changed a part of the law to allow rock groins on beaches that many believed would slow the rate of erosion. But groins can worsen erosion below the walls -- which run from the beach into the ocean to trap sand -- by starving downstream beaches of sand.
Later, DHEC began moving some building restriction lines seaward so that bigger development projects could built closer to the ocean.
Most recently, the Legislature has been engaged in multiple disputes over whether to ease the state's ban on new seawalls, a prohibition that for decades was largely unchallenged. The dispute has focused on whether to let a handful of wealthy property owners at Debordieu, just down the coast from
State Rep.
Sturkie, the former state representative from
"We could see the repercussions," said Sturkie, who now lives in
Ironically, the Lucas case has rarely been used to prove government regulations had devalued people's property, legal experts say.
Young, the
It's all an exercise in futility, he said.
Hugo proved what a major storm can do to
"The 1988 Beachfront Management Act was groundbreaking legislation," said Young, who remembers Hugo blowing through
But Young said "it has been attacked by the private property rights movement.
"The fact of the matter is that coastal erosion and sea level rise may have caught up with a lot of these oceanfront homes."
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